Yes literally. Today I read in news that Pakistan is leading the region in per person annual sugar consumption. On average, every Pakistani is now consuming 25 kilograms of sugar every year. Please take few seconds to think about it. Take your eyes off the monitor and for few seconds imagine what I just wrote….shabash – Teek hai – bilkul Teek – every Pakistani…25 kilograms of sugar….in one year. wow.
Trailing behind Pakistan are other countries of the region like India with 14 kg/person, China with 11 kg/person and Bangladesh with 10 kg/person.
It is expected that in 2009, Pakistan’s sugar demand is going to be 4,350,000 tonnes. Pakistan is expected to produce 3,600,000 tonnes of sugar locally while the rest will have to be imported.
I also want to quote a line from a Urdu daily today which reads like this:
The sweet obsessed Pakistani nation consumes sugar worth of Rs 200 billion annually
The above situation however, does not give us the complete picture of what is currently going on with sugar market in Pakistan.
With the advent of Ramzan, and amidst all rumors of usual sugar hoarding there is a full fledge sugar crisis at hand in Pakistan. I am sure most of our readers are aware of the usual blame game that is going on between Govt and opposition on who is making the most profit. But the reality on street is that price of sugar in retail has hit Rs 52/kilogram in Karachi market and in rest of the country it is even higher. Government is claiming that utility stores will sell sugar for Rs 38/kg but when will it happen, remains to be seen.
Few days ago I was reviewing Shahabnama where it was mentioned that once in Ayub Khan’s time sugar shortage happened. Ayub Khan’s agriculture minister in those days was A. Hoti who overnight got the laqab of cheeni chor (sugar thief) from the public. Where ever this Minister went people used to shout ‘cheeni chor cheeni chor’. It is said that Minister actually took the title to heart and remedied the situation by going against sugar hoarders. Times have changed. Today I think any protest like this will not even ‘move a lice on the ear’ (kan pe jooN rengna) of any Minister.
So as I see it we have two issues at hand. While government needs to come hard on sugar hoarders and official planners who couldn’t foresee an impending shortage before hand, we as a nation also need to cut down on our ‘cheeni’ (sugar – not Chinese) consumption.
Did I also mention yet that same news which talked about 25kg/yr number also claimed that every 5th Pakistani is diabetic. While I cannot confirm this number, you can see the direct connection between the two phenomena. 25kg sugar = 0.2×178 = 35.6 million diabetic patients in Pakistan. wow.
I’ll close this post on this famous Urdu idiom:
meetha meetha hup hup, kaRwa kaRwa thoo thoo (sweet attraction, bitter repulsion)
Sugar Trivia:
Despite Pakistan’s enormous sugar consumption we still lag other regions like North America where annual sugar consumption is 38 kg/per person. Oceania including Australia is 45 kg/person and in South America annual sugar consumption is 46.5 kg/person.
References:
1. Pride News
2. Pakistan Sugar Annual Report 2009
3. Trends in Global Sugar Consumption
Photo Credits: Murad Ali Shah and ZAK!
In America they are now using high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar in their candy, jams etc. That’s even worse, from what I’ve heard.
I would just like to point out that a less tempting picture could have been chosen to post during Ramzaan.
Those gulab-jamuns are making my mouth water :)
S.H.Kavi, you are correct that eating too much sugar may not cause diabetes but once diabetes is there, eating too much sugar may prove to be ‘zehr-e-qatil’
Shiraz, you are correct that not all segments of the society could be eating 25 kg/year. eg. extra poor and infants may be below this average, which means middle, upper middle segments of society must be consuming much higher than 25 kg/year per person.
Comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “Indeed we have a sweet tooth… and we pay for it in health. But the real issue right now is teh rising price and how it effects Pakistanis because of sugar hoarding.”
– “but i cannot live without sweet sugar or even lessen. anyone here who can say it i s easy to give up the habit?”
– “wow, only Pakistaniz can do it :p .. yeah wicked man!”
– “its nt impossible..atleast v cn try!!!
i ws shocked to c da statistics dat in south asia pak is consuming higgest amount ov sugar per yr even more den india which hv far more population then ourz!!!!!!”
– “i like sweets… Mmmm :)”
– “pakistaniyn ko jis cheez say roktan hain woh wahe kam sub say ziyada kartain hain LOLXX…… abhi sugar supply main kami hay aur sub say ziyada usi ki demand hay ……..:)”
– “I like fruits but some take sweet too.”
– “govt strategy to make ppl eat less sugar !!!! might help !!! eik chai k cup mein teen teen chamchay cheeni !!! chai mein cheeni nahin balkay cheeni mein chai daal kar peetay hain !!!”
– “pakistani sweets are famous all our the world”
– “meethey log. meethey shoq”
– “yar hamein mithayan mat dikhaya karo roza lagney lagta hai”
– “dats too much we should have control on it.well i dnt thnk dat i myslf take 25 kg of sugar./i take more than dat.haha”